Real estate blog

Rénoclimat, Heating with Green Power and Rénovert Programs

Are you thinking about buying a property but worry about the cost of potential renovations? The Québec government offers programs that can help save you money, including its latest program, Rénovert, announced in the Leitão budget on March 17, 2016.

How do you know if you’re eligible for one or more of these programs? Here is an overview of the advantages and target clientele for Rénoclimat, Heating with Green Power and Rénovert.

Rénoclimat

The Rénoclimat program is offered by the Ministère de l’Énergie et des Ressources naturelles. Its purpose is to encourage homeowners to carry out energy-efficient renovations and reduce the overall energy consumption of their home.

The process starts with a mandatory evaluation of your home's energy efficiency by an expert certified by the Ministère. A portion of the evaluation cost will be refunded to you under the Rénoclimat program.

A few days after the evaluation, the inspector will send you the energy-efficiency evaluation report for your home. This report will contain your home's current EnerGuide rating and a list of recommended renovations that could improve your rating and that are eligible for a Rénoclimat subsidy.

Once the work is complete, the inspector will carry out a new energy-efficiency evaluation. The improvement in your EnerGuide rating will be used to calculate the amount of funding you are eligible for.

The method for calculating this amount is quite complicated and the amount may vary significantly depending on the type of work to be carried out. The program website has a section called "Financial Assistance" which provides an overview of the funding available for various renovation projects.

Heating with Green Power

Heating with Green Power is actually a sub-program of Rénoclimat. Anyone participating in the Rénoclimat program is eligible for Heating with Green Power, although the reverse is not true. You can participate in the Heating with Green Power program without participating in the broader Rénoclimat program.

Heating with Green Power specifically applies to the replacement of fossil-fuel heating systems with systems using electricity or other sources of renewable energy. Financial assistance varies according to the type of residence and unit being replaced, but the amount is usually significant. In the typical case of a single-family dwelling where the central heating unit and boiler are being replaced, the subsidy amount is $1,525.

You can find the amount applicable to your home under "Financial Assistance" on the Heating with Green Power website.

Rénovert

Given the success of these two programs, the government decided to launch a third program with the 2016 budget. Rather than being subsidized, renovations covered under the program are eligible for a tax credit worth 20% of the total cost of the work.

This tax credit is temporary for now and will only apply to work carried out between March 17, 2016, and April 1, 2017. The government may choose to extend it with the next budget, but this information will not be available in advance.

The program covers some of the renovations eligible for Rénoclimat and Heating with Green Power, but its scope is broader. For example, water conservation and quality projects and soil decontamination are also included. The tax credit is administered by Revenu Québec, and a complete list of eligible renovations can be found on its website.

The exact amount of the tax credit is 20% of the cost of the eligible work in excess of $2,500. This means that if the work costs $10,000, your credit will be $1,500, i.e. 20% of $7,500 ($10,000 minus $2,500).

It is worth noting that you may be eligible for both Rénovert and Rénoclimat, meaning that any financial assistance received under the latter program won't reduce the amount on which the tax credit is calculated. This means that you'll save double on certain types of work.